I sighed, letting my eyes fall closed as I crushed the pudding pot in my fist, turning it back into the trash it was made from as I tried to cling to the final notes of their laughter and tie them up tight around my heart.
Roary's arms closed around me and I sighed as I let him pull me close to his chest, inhaling the rich sandalwood scent of him as I listened to the beat of his heart beneath my ear and tried to convince myself I didn't want anything else from him.
"When I see you, I don't see a little pup, Rosa," Roary said in a low voice, returning to the argument we'd been having before that call. "I see a Fae worth respecting, fearing, following. I see one of the only good things in here and a piece of home I never dared to believe I’d have again. I don't think you're some stupid pup. I think you're the one thing I needed more than anything in this place. Hope."
I didn't know what to say to that so I just curled my arms around his waist and held him close for as long as my aching heart could take it without breaking for him.
When I pulled back, I gave him a tight smile and headed back towards the main part of the library where the work was underway.
As we stepped out of the aisle we'd been in, I almost bumped straight into Gustard and I flinched minutely, narrowing my eyes at him as he smiled almost pleasantly.
"Problem?" I challenged, taking in that smug glint in his eyes like he held all of my secrets close and was just waiting for the right moment to reveal them.
Gustard gave Roary an assessing look, his mouth hooking up at the corner like he was tempted to reveal my feelings for him but instead, he just shrugged innocently.
"No problem I can't deal with, pup," he said and a shiver of warning ran down my spine as my gifts pricked up at the threat in his voice.
He walked away from us and I narrowed my eyes at him.
"You don't think he was listening to us, do you?" I murmured once I was sure he was out of earshot.
Roary frowned as he considered it then shrugged. "If he was, I think he would have said something, reminded us of his leverage."
"Yeah," I agreed, letting him turn me away from Gustard as a frown pinched my brow.
That unsettled feeling wouldn't go away though. But if Gustard thought he could take me on and win, he had another thing coming.
“But if you don’t kill him when we get out of here, I’ll do it myself, Rosa. No one hurts you and gets away with it while I still draw breath,” Roary growled and despite all the reasons I had to be worrying, I couldn’t help but smirk to myself at that declaration.
I exited the processing room, healing the scratches on my arm from the new inmate I’d just sent into Darkmore. My shift was ending and I wasn’t looking forward to the hours alone in my room. I nodded to Lyle who was sitting in the security office, parted from me by a wall of glass.
“Ombrian Tiger Shifter, eh? Don’t get many of those anymore,” he commented and I shrugged.
“Guess not,” I said, tucking my Atlas into my pocket, about to leave, but he kept talking.
“My great uncle Neville was a white Nemean Lion,” he said thoughtfully. “I’ve got a nice red coat, but it's not that rare. Are there rare types of Vampires?"
"I don't know," I said, stepping toward the door.
"I suppose there's not much to be rare about a Vampire, fangs that glow maybe," he chuckled.
"Yeah, maybe," I grunted, then wondered if this was why I had no friends.
It wasn't like most of the guards here weren't decent Fae. It was that I wasn't. And that I'd lost the desire to bond with people a long time ago. After the only person I ever cared about was ripped from this world, I decided not to make a habit out of caring for people again. That kind of wound didn't heal right. It would always be there and the moon curse I was under liked to remind me of that even more often than before.
My gaze slipped to the CCTV screens behind Lyle's head as he started talking about his uncle Nigel or whatever the fuck his name was, and my eyes hooked on